Not You Lot Again!

A phrase which could have been uttered by either Kenilworth A or Solihull A last night, since it was our third meeting in the space of 33 days - our two league matches (one rearranged from before Christmas) having sandwiched a KO Cup semi-final. Whereas the first two encounters were of considerable competitive significance, the same could not really be said about the latest encounter - we had the Division 1 title already secured, and Solihull were sitting very comfortably in 3rd = position. So nothing really at stake, except a bit of pride and local bragging rights.

Lacking the services of both Jude and Javier, the Kenilworth match captain (that would be me) sprang a massive shock by turning the clock back a year (decade?) or two and naming the seldom seen Andy B on Board 1, where he faced one of the toughest tasks in the Leamington League - Black against Don Mason. He gave it a good shot and was one move away from securing excellent dynamic compensation for a pawn lost on b7, but after choosing the wrong square on the e file for his queen, Don showed excellent tactical control to reach a position with rook and bishop plus a couple of kingside pawns each - but with White having an extra monster pawn on c6. This proved irrelevant, though when Andy allowed his rook to be pinned against his king by Don's bishop, and it was 1-0 to Solihull. This was a good game by both players. But especially by Don.

Except it wasn't 1-0 to Solihull really, because we were already 2-0 up by that point. Andrew continued his impressive return to league action with a fascinating win against Ray Carpenter on Board 3. After a highly irregular opening, Ray fell into a cunning trap when he took a pawn that was so hot it was positively on fire. To his horror Ray found he could not maintain protection of his knight on e5 and Andrew duly annexed the piece and won not too long afterwards. Meanwhile Joshua was trying to push Tony Sadler's patent rope-a-dope/hedgehog type set-up off the board with a massive central and kingside pawn push. With his pieces flooding in behind this avalanche (is that a mixed metaphor?) and Tony's time disappearing down a black hole, there was only going to be one result. 

Which left me in play against Neil Clarke on Board 2 as the last, and match deciding, game. Neil made an error in the opening and I immediately got what should have been a decisive advantage. But I made the mistake of threatening mate in one and although I won a pawn, I suddenly had to face a terrible attack down the h file and along the a8-h1 diagonal. It looked like curtains for a good few moves, but somehow my defences held, albeit with several inaccuracies from both players. Then with both of us in time trouble the smoke finally cleared and Neil was faced with the choice of being a piece down with no play, or a rook down with chances for a perpetual. He went for the second option, but after running away from a series of checks my king made it to safety on a2 and he had to resign. 3-1 to us in the end, but it could so easily have been 2-2.

It turned out to be a bad night in Kenilworth for Solihull, as while the two clubs' A teams were locking horns in the Committee Room, our D team was taking on Solihull C in a Division 3 match in the bar. Roy had assembled a rather useful side (understatement!) containing just the three juniors - Katya, Dhairya and Keatan - plus that wizened old veteran Harry on top board. Solihull made the mistake of having only 1 junior in their team, who drew against Harry, while our three all won in good style. This included a first Kenilworth win for Dhairya, making him the sixth junior to register a first win for us this season - following the examples of Katya, Keatan, Gregory, Lionel and George. When we throw the comparative veterans Jude and Billy into the equation that makes an amazing 8 juniors to have won for the club in 2022-23. Truly remarkable and a big thank you to Paul who has been so instrumental in this process. But an even bigger thank you to all the juniors for being such strong players at such young ages and for being an absolute credit to their parents and coach(es). And now a credit to KCC as well, of course!

After all these matches against Solihull A in such a short space of time, there are some very "familiar faces" amongst their players. Which just happened to remind me of a line from this week's song! Alright, the actual phrase in the song is "familiar places", but let's not start splitting hairs! Just enjoy another timeless rock 'n roll classic - and marvel as black and white becomes colour!

Third Successive Leamington League Title Secured

In contrast to the Coventry League, where our recent Division 1 win was secured in the final match, a 3.5-0.5 win away to second placed Olton A last night delivered a third consecutive Leamington League title with three matches still left to play.

Our title success in 2019-20 was rather fortunate, as the season was truncated by the arrival of covid, and we won on average points per game, when we had still got two very strong teams to face. There was no competition in 2020-21, but 2021-22's success was very convincing - unbeaten and seven points clear of Olton A in just a ten match season.

Thanks to the massive blip against Banbury A, we can't go unbeaten this season, but in terms of points amassed and games won, our performances have been at least as convincing - apart from that bizarre night against Banbury, we have won every match, and not a single individual game has been lost. And everyone of our 8 players - heroes all - have scored a minimum of 50%. I don't think my time as captain has ever been as easy, since when key players have been unavailable, others have been more than able to stand in. Just when we lost Jude for a few games post-Xmas, Andrew returned from his sabbatical and Javier arrived from Spain as if by magic. In addition to last night's four, Joshua, Andy and Bernard C have also appeared in the A team this season, and have made up a formidable and successful squad.

But what about last night's match, I hear you cry? Olton had a pretty useful team out, but we were collectively in inspired form. I was first to finish, beating Nick Roberts on Board 3 with the same variation I used to beat Mike in the Kenilworth A v B match last season. Nick made a few rather dodgy moves and then made a big oversight in a very difficult position, but the speed of his resignation still surprised me. Mike then drew on Board 4 against Gary Hope after a game where he tried a few things to enliven proceedings, but Gary was very solid and was able to keep the position under control and even take a slight initiative before the draw was agreed. The match - and title - was then secured by Javier, who comprehensively dismantled Mark Cundy's King's Gambit on Board 2. Not sure what King's Gambit advocate, and possible next World Champion, Ian Nepomniatchi would have thought of this, but I doubt his Chessable course on the opening recommended the line adopted by Mark! By far the longest struggle was on Board 1, where Jude eventually completed a tremendous double this season over Alan Lloyd, after a game which saw a difference of opinion amongst the KCC players. Javier and I thought Jude had been worse for most of the game (an opinion shared by Alan) but Jude was having none of it! Anyway, the clock intervened decisively at the end, as Alan got himself half an hour behind Jude, and when he was down to less than 2 minutes, it was almost inevitable that Jude would jump out and win. Which, of course, he did!

The title-clinchers! L-R: Mike, Jude, Mark and Javier. Quite a divergent demographic - no-one within 20 years of the team's average age! (Must have a word with Jude about his Adidas connection - I'm expecting a big sponsorship offer for KCC from Reebok any day now, so that will have to go.)

So it was happy journey back home to Kenilworth, but little was I to know that - title success or no title success - the real drama of the evening was only just about to start! Having dropped off Mike and Javi, I got back home and thought I'd just check my e-mails before going to bed, as I hadn't switched my phone back on after the match. Rather disturbingly there was an e-mail from Javi saying he had lost the key to his flat. Could I check my car to see if it had fallen out of his pocket there. I checked and it hadn't. I sent a message to Olton to see if anyone had found a key, but obviously Javi needed rescuing from the prospect of a night on the mean streets of Kenilworth (his car keys were in his flat, so he couldn't even retreat to that, and the contact details for his landlord were on his work phone - yes, you guessed it, also in his flat!) So off I went to pick him up and bring him to my house for the night. No sooner had we arrived back than he took off his jacket and, possibly by a complete stroke of luck, happened to feel something in the lining. Oh yes, it was his flat key, which had gone through a small hole in the pocket and ended up deep in the lining. Relief all round. So back to his flat to drop him off again, and then back home to post the result of the match - only to find that Mark Cundy had beaten me to it.

Anyway, a happy ending, but a late night drama I would prefer not to repeat! I always knew Javi was a key member of the team. So in honour of last night's events, and to commemorate our three successive LDCL titles, we have a triple musical contribution to this report. See if you can spot a theme!

If you thought that was a bit weird, you ain't heard nothing yet!

And from the totally ridiculous to the sublime

A Tale of Two Cities

 

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair."

Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

Josh's recent (and entirely fair) observation that I have not done a very good job of updating readers as to the exploits of the B and C team has prompted me to write a post, albeit on a different subject altogether. For those who think they would like a more in depth account of the season these LDCL teams have had - trust me, unless you like a good horror story, you probably wouldn't! 

Instead, I wanted to reflect on the emotional wringer chess puts us all through - and how even when we face a bad experience, we never know what might be just around the corner. 

I can honestly say that Monday's league match was one of my lowest points as a chess player (and there's stiff competition for that accolade.) I guess we've all been outplayed by someone when we least expected it, and that's never easy. I can't really bring myself to write much more than that. Suffice to say, a bad defeat can easily lead to a loss of confidence, and can make anyone wonder why they put themselves through the emotional wringer. 

Then on Wednesday, I went to a charity curry night where Steve Davis was the guest. We had an amazing chat about chess, and at the end of the evening he came back over to show me one of his games. It was really good fun! I remembered again how powerful chess is, and the role it can play in bringing people together. If Monday had to be the price for Wednesday, it was definitely worth it!

I'm not renowned as the most philosophical of losers. That said, I have been thinking a lot about perspective lately. Possibly because I've not had a great season. But also because sometimes it's good to step back and reflect. There's so much more to chess than a single loss (however painful) or a single victory (however good). Wednesday was the perfect reminder of that. Watch this space for the April edition of Chess Magazine, where with the help of a certain Mr Watson, I explore "coping with defeat" in more detail. (Let's face it, we've both got plenty of experience to draw on!)

So a week that started bleakly ended much more positively. And heck, if things don't improve I can always take up Snooker...

2158 - A KCC Record!

Although, of course, no records have been kept on this subject, but I'm sticking to my belief that this represents the highest average rating of a KCC 5 board team - ever! I do recall a very strong team being fielded over 4 boards against Solihull A in a league match in 2016, where we (Paul, Andy B, Andrew P and myself) averaged 193 in old money - equivalent to 2144 in decimal - but even that failed to match the team we were able to field in the KO Cup Semi Final against Solihull this week.  For those who want to be sticklers for detail, I should say that I have used Javier's ELO rating of 2210, rather than his provisional ECF of 2107, in calculating the average rating. But which ever way you slice it, the fact remains that everyone in the team was rated over 2100, which I'm sure is unprecedented for our club. The team was so strong, that there was no room for serial Player of the Year and renowned Leamington League points machine Joshua. Mind you, the average could have been even higher if the spectating Paul had instead been in the team!

But, of course, we all know about lies, damned lies and statistics, and any unknowing observer would, for much of the evening, have had a hard job working out that the match was so lopsided ratings-wise. (Just an average 289 points advantage per board to us.) But eventually statistical probability re-asserted itself, and at the end of the evening we had secured a 4-1 win and a place in the KO Cup Final against Shirley on May 16th. But it was far from being a comfy ride.

Jude was in desperate straits against Neil Clarke on Board 1 for much of the evening, and was about 1 good move by Neil away from disaster. But when he was given just one brief opportunity he conjured up a lethal passed pawn that completely turned the tables and won the game. Phew!

And Andrew P, unbelievably languishing on Board 5 when he has more usually occupied Board 1 in his time with KCC, was under severe pressure from Tony Sadler out of the opening and must have breathed a huge sigh of relief when Tony castled kingside and gave up a powerful attack down the h file. Andrew subsequently began to get on top, but maybe out of relief or exhaustion the game - the last to finish - ended up as a draw. And a draw it was as well on Board 4, where Andy B couldn't crack open Julian Summerfield's solid defence, despite mustering a large army of pieces to threaten Black's king. Andy eventually ran out of ideas as to how to increase the pressure any further and so the point was halved.

My game against Paul Roper should have ended the same way. I was within a whisker of establishing a winning position in a queen-less middlegame, but faltered very near the end when I mistakenly gave up my 2 bishops' advantage to win a pawn. But the resultant bishops of the same colour ending should have been drawn, as my extra pawn was blockaded and I couldn't get my king in. But Paul had a rush of blood to the head and inexplicably swapped the bishops off allowing me to create a second passed pawn which immediately forced resignation.

But finally I can mention a game where the KCC player bossed events from start to finish. On Board 2 Javier produced an excellent, controlled attack against Ray Carpenter's Sicilian Defence, despite not moving his bishop from f1 until the game was virtually over! The game featured a delightful moment - which I unfortunately failed to witness live - when Javier played pawn from g7 to g8 = knight, check. I don't know, all our match sets have spare queens which I religiously put by each board before the matches start, and then our man has to go and under-promote to a knight! Never mind, this was clearly the game of the evening and the only convincing win that we managed against very tough and determined opposition.

Rather surprisingly, I have been unable to locate any songs titled 2158 to accompany this article, but it did remind me of a one-hit wonder from 1969 that will have to serve as the next best thing. Who remembers Zager and Evans and "In the Year 2525"?  Now that really would be some average rating - a whole team of current British Champion Harry Grieves!!

BTW - if anybody knows which of these two is Zager and which is Evans, do please tell me!

The Wait is Over

It was at the AGM in 2015 that the club decided to enter a team in the Coventry League for the first time - prompted by the urgings of Messrs Watson and Pink (oh, the irony!). Since then our finishing positions in Division 1 have been:-

2015-16 6th
2016-17 4th
2017-18 3rd
2018-19 6th (of 6!)
2019-20 3rd
2020-21 No competition  - Covid

2021-22 2nd

So with the exception of our 2018/19 struggles, we have been getting closer each year, and last season we had the most agonising of near misses, when we lost our last match against a not very strong Warwick Uni A, when a draw would have given us the title.

But thankfully, last night that long wait came to an end, and in rather strange circumstances we clinched the Division 1 title by beating Coventry A (population c325,000) by 2.5-1.5.  A very late turn of events, which had seen Warwick Uni A deducted a match point for an incorrect board order offence, meant that once again we only needed a draw to edge ahead of Nuneaton A and secure the silverware. This time, though, instead of a fellow title contestant, we were at least playing a mid-table team with nothing at stake.

There were some nerves, of course, but we had assembled a strong team and generally we always seemed to be doing enough to get at least the draw required. The wildest game was that between Jude and Francis Sagayman on Board 2, but Jude started turning the screw in the middle game and won the exchange when trapping a Black rook in the middle of the board. He then started pressing on both sides of the board and in Francis's time trouble more material dropped off, and despite missing mate in 2 (much to the watching Paul's dismay) Jude finished off a very powerful win quickly. A tremendous effort by our irrepressible Mighty Atom, fresh from a scarcely believable victory over IM Ameet Ghasi (ECF Rapidplay rating just the 2639!!)  the day before. And the next game saw us get over the line, when Mike got the title clinching win on Board 4 against Bava Manickam. Black played what Paul christened the Tortoise Defence, which seemed to involve never going over the half way line in the entire game. Mike remorselessly turned the screw, gaining space everywhere, and eventually winning material and running Bava's clock down to unmanageable levels.

The rest of the match was a bit of an anti-climax. I was slightly worse against Ed Goodwin for quite a long time, but eventually I started getting on top and managed to win a pawn, but Ed held a rook and pawn ending where my 3 against 2 and then 2 against 1 advantage was not good enough to win, as all the pawns were on the king side. (To avoid any confusion amongst future readers of this report, I should confirm that this is the same Ed Goodwin who has played 10 games for Kenilworth this season.) And then to cap it all off, Javier rather surprisingly went down on top board against Joshua Pink after a game where I possibly mistakenly thought Javier was making most of the running, but luckily the match was already won and the title clinched. (To avoid any confusion amongst future readers of this report, I should confirm that this is the same Joshua Pink who has played 11 games for Kenilworth this season.)

Which meant that to the above list we can now add:-

2022-23 1st

So many thanks and congratulations to the 8 people who turned out for Kenilworth in the Coventry League this season:-

Mike and Me - 9 appearances
Jude - 7 appearances
Ben - 5 appearances
Javier - 3 appearances
Bernard C, Phil and Bruce B - 1 appearance

And everyone who appeared contributed to our points tally. Truly a team effort.

And it would be remiss of me not to thank Paul and Bernard R for their support at last night's crucial match.  So, the wait is over and we have won the Coventry League Division 1 title - by one point from Nuneaton A. Who ever would have thought that after our chastening 3-1 loss to them in the first match of the season - the infamous Covidgate match!?

I guess the lesson from this is that if you wait long enough, there will be a sunny day!

We're staying up (maybe/possibly)

People might be surprised at seeing a B team report on this website, given Ben's repeated tardiness on this matter. However, given Kenilworth's new status as a sportswashing enterprise for rich Middle Eastern dictatorships, and the fact this has enable us to import a whole range of expensive new strong players into the team, I find myself demoted into the ranks of the mob. With such positive thoughts in mind, I found myself lining up against Leamington this week, with our two teams the two most at risk of relegation from the first division this season.

Pleasingly, my game continued in much the same way as most have recently, when I got a wretched position out of the opening against Tom Darling. He played a King's Gambit, and I adopted the original strategy of both not taking the pawn but him still having the standard compensation for the pawn I hadn't taken. The fact that my ninth and tenth moves were Kf8 and f5 should tell you that not all went to plan. Fortunately, a timely exchange sacrifice and some tactics enabled me to ultimately scramble into a pawn down endgame that was ultimately holdable - a fine result I think we can all agree, and one undoubtedly worthy of promotion back to the first team.

Fortunately, other players in the team were achieving more success than I was. Bernard's game was an interesting case study in how it is possible to lose material with gaining any compensation. What seemed like a fairly normal game was punctuated every 10 moves or so by Bernard taking one of Andrew Collins' pawns. You would have thought that eventually this would lead to Andrew having at least some compensation, but this never appears to be the case. By 2.5 hours of this Bernard was up by 4 pawns and still there was no compensation, so Andrew had to resign. Ed had an even more comfortable looking win, with some quick tactics revolving around a piece sacrifice that couldn't be taking as it led to his opponent's queen being trapped leading to a winning attack. With those two decent wins and my extremely high quality draw (hint, hint, first team selectors) the match was secured.

That just leaves Mike's game to discuss, and I hope he won't be offended if I say it was about as much a Mike game as you are ever going to see. He started by building up an excellent strategic advantage, then won a pawn, leaving him with what must have been a winning position. Then his opponent's queen went on an adventure, meaning for a good few moves it looks like Mike was about to trap it, but he never did, and the pawn was lost back. Then, in a relatively level endgame, Mike was short of time so offered a draw, which his opponent declined. Then, two moves later, Mike won a whole piece with a back-rank mating trick and was completely winning once again, but had to agree a draw as he only had a minute left on the clock. Rarely can someone have so outplayed his opponent consistently for 3 hours, and still only ended up this half a point.

Still, a success overall, and look like Kenilworth are on the verge of still having two teams in the first division next season.

Whilst I can't support Mark's approach of constantly attaching songs to this blog - mostly because I almost never know what he is talking about - but on this occasion I should add this, to match up to the title of this piece:

Yet Another Winning Debut!

Continuing in my role as unpaid website slave to Roy, I am able to bring news of another excellent performance by the D team, which saw a third consecutive winning debut by a KCC junior.  Though in this instance George, unlike the much younger Gregory and Lionel who preceded him, is only just a junior. But this was still a really excellent result - especially considering it was only his second ever rated game and that until less than 2 weeks ago, George wasn't even a member of KCC!

But I'm getting ahead of myself. So Roy can take over from here to relate the events of last night's Shirley D v Kenilworth D encounter.

George played his first league match last night, White, on Board 3. A French quickly resulted in a strong advantage to George and despite an illegal move by his opponent (0-0 through check) which George did not claim, this soon became a clean rook and pawn up. Swap, swap, swap and 1-0 to us. A winning debut for George.

Meanwhile Steph, Black on Board 4, was also playing a French and secured an early pawn advantage. Achieving lots of pressure against her opponent's king stuck in the centre and pinning everything in sight, pressure turned into a rout. And a first Kenilworth win for Steph in only her second match. 2-0 to us

The mighty Harry, White on board one, got as far as move one when his phone went off! His gentlemanly opponent, who no doubt wanted a game after having turned out, did not claim the game. Coming out of an Albin Counter Gambit a game too complex for me, resulted in the win of a pawn by Harry and after much shuffling, a win. So 3-0 to us and match victory assured. But really, Harry! That was a lucky escape.

On Board 2 Keatan secured a two pawn advantage, although it was unlikely he would be able to hold on to both. Everything came off  except for a knight each and unfortunately for Keatan his opponent's knight and king were much more active. Keatan lost FOUR - yes FOUR - pawns in swift succession, but this only resulted in a drawn position.

A splendid 3.5-0.5 win, which keeps the D team very much in contention at the top of Division 3. And to think our D team used to prop up Division 4 only a season or two ago!

Lots of phone songs to choose from, of course, but let's avoid the obvious and go for something a bit special (like Harry!).